This past April I spent a week in the woods at MacPhail Woods taking a university course, Environmental Studies 209 – Ecological Forestry, learning about forest ecology, sustainable forestry practices, forest restoration and the Acadien Forests.

It was an amazing experiential learning course and everything we learned has stayed with me and I think it will stay with me and will be built on by my own experiences as I work in our family woodlots and observe nature throughout the seasons.  We learned about plant identification techniques, assessing forest health, ecological diversity, pruning and harvesting techniques and so much more.  We also got to take a piece of the woods at MacPhail’s and design a restoration plan and then actually implement it. Read the rest of this entry »

How to Green Your Home Without the Stress

Spring is in the air – the geese are coming back, and with more than 3 hours of sunlight a day, you’re ready to don your beloved flip flops and hop in the hammock!   But do you secretly dread confronting your household ‘to do’ list? This Spring, avoid those stressful jobs with a green helping hand! Visit www.GreenPros.ca – A fresh online directory where you can connect with leading green home professionals like Ecological Homes, Geo-Flo Energy Services and Shelterbelt Architecture!

Andrea Jones, founder of eco home resource Raising Spaces shares that, “home building and renovation projects can easily elevate household stress levels and lead to burnout. This is especially true for eco and health conscious do-it-yourselfers, since the extra challenge of researching more sustainable products and building methods is time-consuming and challenging.” With Green Pros, you can now skip the stress, avoid expensive mistakes and find the right professional for your home and values, inside and out. Read the rest of this entry »

So you want to build your own straw bale home.  You’ve seen them in green home building books and on TV shows, you saw green home builders wax poetic about their homes low impact on the environment and connection to the local ecology.  You’ve researched all the possible alternative home building techniques and the thought of conventional framing makes you shudder.  You are going to build a straw bale home no matter what obstacles the MAN and doubters have to say!  Well far be it for me to try and dissuade you!

There are some things you should know and experience first though.  This, in all likely-hood, is going to be one of the most challenging things you will ever take on.   Read the rest of this entry »

The best way that I can think of to add a large amount (20+ tonnes) of thermal mass to a solar home is by adding concrete floors. By doing this, one can get two uses, thermal storage and a finished floor,  out of the same investment. Furthermore, since the mass of a concrete floor is so spread out around the home, thereby giving it a large surface area with which to absorb and release heat, it really is the ideal thermal storage medium for a house with large solar gains. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mill Creek NetZero Home is substantially completed.

The stucco is finished on the outside. We went with a cement-based stucco because of its looks and durability.

Peter Amerongen built a brick wall behind the wood burner. We used the bricks from the foundation of the house that used to be standing on the property. This wall adds more thermal mass (to capture both solar and wood heat) to the house, as well as a bit of history. Read the rest of this entry »

Lately, I’ve been really intrigued by Slow Design, which is a cousin of the Slow Food, traditional skills, and voluntary simplicity movements, and the Zen Buddhist concept of wabi-sabi. The published Slow Design Principles (Strauss and Fuad-Luke, see www.slowlab.net) are couched in academic language, and the case studies cited mostly involve the design of objects or artistic installations. However, the principles and practices of Slow Design are tools that are useful to sustainable designers, decorators, and artisans of all disciplines. To summarize (and loosely quote) that document’s main points:

Slow Design:

• facilitates ’slowness’ and provides a balance to the industrial-consumerist model of design.

• seeks to shift the user’s awareness and attitudes about materials, processes, time, and natural environment. Read the rest of this entry »